China’s message is clear: Don’t mess with us
The calm of waters of South China Sea was breached by the roar of a US warship last week. The USS Lassen, a US warship, violated the Chinese waters, sailing within 12 nautical miles of Chinese islands in South China Sea near China’s Nansha Islands in the South China Sea, near Zhubi Reef without the permission of the Chinese government.
It is not the first intervention by the US warship into the Chinese waters near the islands. It seems it is also not the last one.
The US administration is good at forgetting the bitter lessons and ugly scars of its recent failed military expeditions. The military expeditions by the sole superpower in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and other sovereign states have failed. Now, the US adventurists are trying to ignite a new fire by threatening peace in South China Sea.
An Associated Press report quoted a US Defence Department official as saying, “We will fly, sail, and operate anywhere in the world that international law allows,” — an open ultimatum to China and the countries in the region.
The US, as an irrelevant party in the dispute, has spared no effort to escalate the dispute in the South China Sea, accusing China of harming navigational freedom though evidence has seldom been presented on how harm was done or how shipping lanes have been threatened by China’s island construction, which is primarily used for creation of two lighthouses.
The reaction of the Chinese government was immediate and robust as China has sent a clear message to Washington of “don’t mess with us”.
In an immediate response on October 27, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned the US not to “make trouble out of nothing” in the South China Sea soon after reports emerged about the warship’s intervention.
Wang made the remarks during a seminar in Beijing while responding to a question on the US Navy’s intention of sending a warship within 12 nautical miles of China’s islands in the sea.
“We are checking out the matter,” said the foreign minister, adding that if it was true, China would advise the US to think twice before any action. The Chinese foreign minister urged the US “not to act in an imprudent way and not to make trouble out of nothing”.
The same evening, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui summoned the US Ambassador to China, Max Baucus, lodging “serious reservations” and expressing “strong discontent” over the US warship patrol in Chinese waters.
“This action by the United States threatens China’s sovereignty and security interests and endangers the safety of personnel and facilities on the reef, which is a serious provocation,” Zhang said. He noted that it had done so regardless of China’s earlier dissuasion. “China is strongly discontented with and firmly against the move,” he said.
The Chinese government will resolutely safeguard territorial sovereignty and legal sea interests, and China will do whatever necessary to oppose deliberate provocation from any country.
Denying that China’s activity in the South China Sea will restrict freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with international law, he said that China would nevertheless oppose any country infringing upon its sovereignty and security in the name of the freedom.
“There has been and will be no obstruction to navigation and overflight freedom in the South China Sea,” the Chinese vice minister said, labelling the US move a “show of force” that is very likely to “trigger an accident”, threatening the rights of navigation shared by all countries, and harming peace and stability in the South China Sea. The United States should remember its commitment that it would take no position on territorial disputes, Zhang reminded.
China’s Ministry of National Defence also criticised the USS Lassen’s foray as likely to “seriously harm mutual trust” between the two armed forces.
Chinese ambassador to the United States also slammed the US warship’s intervention as a “serious provocation” that has exposed the absurdity and hypocrisy of the US position on the South China Sea issue.
Cui criticised the United States for taking a “bizarre and even hypocritical position” to ask others not to militarise the region while sending its naval vessels there so frequently.
China has strongly refuted the US claim that it was exercising the so-called freedom of navigation rights in the region, pointing out that the US move was taken in “total disregard of the international law”.
The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea has clear provision about the safety of navigation, freedom of navigation and innocent transit, noting that the United States is not a party to the global treaty.
What the US is doing looks to be against the provision, as well as the letter and spirit of the convention.
Any misadventure by the US marines in the backyard of China, the new emerging economic giant of the planet, may not only cost the US heavily, but also the fire ignited due to such a misadventure might eat away the populace of the entire world.
Though the United States insists that it won’t take positions on the South China Sea issue, all of its actions seem to be targeting China.
It is understandable for the US to be posturing as a defender of world order, as it always claimed to do so, for itself or for its allies including Japan, India and Philippines, but sending warships and planes to the islands may have been a step out of the line. Worse still, it is counterproductive to the solution of the disputes.
Such a show of force may only demonstrate the US intention to militarise the South China Sea and it has weakened the trust and ran counter to the consensus the two global giants have built on fostering a new type of major-states relations.
Aside from adding tension to the situation, by sending warships to the backyard of China, the US may also embolden some claimant countries, which have been deluged with nationalism.
One can hope that China will not use force recklessly, even when it comes to issues related to territory and sovereignty.
But not using force recklessly does not mean China will renounce the use of force. Misinterpretation by the US may cause more miscalculation and could lead to a crisis.
Both the Chinese and US people should not forget the mid-air collision between a US reconnaissance plane and a Chinese fighter jet in China’s Hainan Island airspace in 2001, during which a Chinese pilot was killed. That tragedy was caused by the prolonged adoption of a “cold-war mentality” by the US, which led it to monitor China’s every activity. Such incidents may take place again if the US does not discard its stereotypes of China, though the results may become more unpredictable.
The US decision-making officials should not underestimate China and their army’s ability to steer clear of collision as the sea is no less safe than the airspace.
One must also remember how the US cruiser Yorktown was bumped by former Soviet frigate Bezzavetnyy in the Black Sea on February 12, 1988, though the US was also exercising its “innocent passage” right through the Soviet territorial waters during the Cold War.
The cruiser was bumped with the intention of pushing the Yorktown into international waters. The incident also involved the destroyer USS Caron which, while also claiming the innocent passage, was intentionally shouldered by a Soviet Mirka-class frigate SKR-6.
Hope no such incident occurs in the South China Sea and both sides would observe restraint, avoiding any clash in an area which has remained peaceful despite the fact that China is an economic giant but it has never bullied its neighbours.
